


One Rainy Evening

by Muccamukk



Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: Canon Era, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s01e05 Crossroads, Fluff, Homesickness, Loneliness, M/M, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-08-17 02:39:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16507802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Muccamukk/pseuds/Muccamukk
Summary: "You going to watch it rain all night?" Lew asked.





	One Rainy Evening

**Author's Note:**

> For kuns, who wanted fluffy snuggling.
> 
> Set sometime between Dick's promotion to battalion XO and the 101st shipping to Mourmelon-le-Grand.

It had been raining for a solid week, and Lew didn't think he owned anything that was dry any more. They'd all been trying to dry their extra uniforms on the radiators without setting anything on fire, but at some point the relentless mud and humidity just meant everyone was going to be wet through.

That didn't stop Dick from staring out the window in the the rain like it was his life's ambition to escape his nice sort-of-dry billet and go do Lew didn't know what. Probably find the dankest muddiest OP along the Rhine and keep company with whatever private had the misfortune of the graveyard watch.

Lew shivered just thinking about it, rubbing his arms to warm them. He'd spent the afternoon down near the river scoping German positions on the far side, and changing when he'd got in hadn't done much to warm him up.

"You going to watch it rain all night?" Lew asked.

"Hmm?" Dick started slightly. Wherever his thoughts had been, they hadn't focused on the tattoo of rain against the window. "Sure, Nix."

"I guess so," Lew muttered. "Well, believe it or not, I'm going to bed."

"All right," Dick agreed absently, not looking away. Lew could see Dick's distorted reflection in the heavy lead glass windowpanes. He looked pale and drawn—like he had since his promotion—but the pensive lines around his mouth were new. Lew didn't like them.

When it became clear that Dick wasn't going to say anything else, or go to bed. Lew crossed the room and wrapped his arms around Dick's waist. He rubbed his cheek against Dick's shoulder, and said in a low voice, "Whatcha thinking about?"

"Home," Dick answered, then shook his head, like that was stupid. "Reminds me of spring up in Lebanon County, where my grandparents lived. We used to get rain like this."

Lew had a vague impression that Dick's childhood had involved a lot of countryside and possibly cattle, also a million relatives and endless church services. The bits and pieces Lew had heard sounded not unlike Lew's idea of a personally-tailored hell, and he hadn't inquired too deeply. "Come on," he said now. "It's freezing out here. Come keep me warm."

"You're going to bed?" Dick's surprise should have been a little insulting—it was almost 2200, and Lew wasn't always that much of a night owl—but mostly it worried Lew that Dick really hadn't been listening earlier. Dick had been vague and drifting lately, prone to gathering wool if left too long on his own.

Lew had been making a point of stopping by Dick's office at least a handful of times a day and dragging Dick back to Lew's billet in the evenings. Harry kept them company some nights, but he was out in the rain somewhere that evening. The door was locked, and mostly no one looked for them before Dick got up with the roosters.

"Yeah, Dick," Lew said, tugging on Dick's waist, "I'm going to bed, and so are you."

"Okay, okay." Dick chuckled and the sound itself was almost enough to warm Lew. Almost, but not quite.

Lew stepped back started unbuttoning the shirt of his service uniform. When he had it off, he draped over the back of a chair in the vague hope that it might dry overnight, then knelt to get his boots off. Down to his undershirt and shorts, Lew shivered and rubbed his arms again, dancing from foot to foot on the bare floor. "Come on," he said with more force than the first time, though Dick was undressing now.

The sheets were cold and vaguely damp like everything else, but he had three wool army blankets piled on top, and he knew that once Dick got under the covers it would warm right up.

A few seconds later, Dick crawled into bed next to him and pulled the curtain shut across the alcove. Dick always turned over and around like a cat before he settled, and Lew waited, trying to move as little as possible so not to lose any body heat to cold sheets. Once Dick stretched out on his back, Lew rolled over and threw his thigh across Dick's legs and an arm over his chest. Dick wrapped his arm around Lew's shoulders, and Lew jammed the edge of a pillow in there somewhere so that Dick's bony collarbone wouldn't dig into his ear.

They both lay still for a moment after that, caught between breaths as they let simple satisfaction of being able to hold each other sink in. Dick was generating more heat than any man that lean had any right to do, and Lew soaked it up like a flower turning to the sun.

Then Dick reached across and squeezed Lew's upper arm and asked softly, "Do you get homesick, Lew?"

"Not really," Lew said out of habit, an instinct like raising his rifle to parry a bayonet thrust. It was Dick asking though, so he made himself think about it. "I guess sometimes I miss the chow, and the weather in Santa Barbara, not living in a uniform. I definitely miss the booze." Lew had been drinking schnapps lately, and it hadn't improved his view of Holland. Not that he'd seen a hell of a lot of Holland that wasn't obscured by rain or explosions.

"I miss my family," Dick said, almost too soft to hear, like missing his magazine-cover perfect extended clan was something he should be ashamed of. He wrote long letters to his mother and sister every week, and received thick packages of mail in return. "Sorry. I know it's complicated for you."

"Complicated. Yeah." Lew didn't want to think about the slow-motion train wreck of his parents' impending divorce, or how Blanche had taken their mom's side and their dad assumed Lew's devotion in exchange. Of the wife Lew no longer loved and had maybe never loved him, or the baby Lew had held exactly twice before he'd shipped out. Lew didn't write letters, and didn't receive any. "I miss my dog."

Dick chuckled and kissed Lew's forehead, but didn't say anything. Lew was glad. He just wanted to lie in silence and be held. He was so damn grateful that Dick loved him back, even if it was just the two of them clinging to each other for lack of anything else. Even if it would almost certainly end when the war did.

Lew was glad Dick didn't ask him anything else, because he didn't want to have to figure out how to say that he didn't miss home because the war was the best damn thing that had ever happened to him, and probably ever would. It was an appalling thing to even think, and it would just remind Dick of all his dead boys and the sacrifices they'd made. Lew said nothing, and tried to think of even less.

The bed was soft and broad, and the holding each other close had warmed up the blankets enough that Lew stopped shivering. He thought sleepily of rubbing himself against Dick's hip to see if he could get anything going, but they were both too tired for that, and Lew didn't want it right now anyway. This was what he'd wanted.

"I'm glad you're here, Nix," Dick said, lips still half pressed to Lew's hair. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

Lew didn't know how he'd earned that kind of talk from someone like Dick, but he held the words close and tightened his hold on Dick's chest, feeling ribs under smooth skin and lean muscles. He was too thin. Dick didn't like k-rations, and there still wasn't much else around here, so he ended up not eating enough.

In the morning, Lew would scrounge up something better for Dick. He'd bring it up to Dick's cramped attic office, and force him to remember that for all the rain and horror on that island, someone still cared about him and thought he mattered. Thinking about where he could find eggs and cheese and maybe even real bread, Lew drifted off. Dick held him as he slept.


End file.
